


Push

by shadowfaerieammy



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: ALL THE ANGST, Angst, F/M, read this if you want a broken heart, seriously im not even kidding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 08:22:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6366664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowfaerieammy/pseuds/shadowfaerieammy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She had to push him away. Ladybug isn't real; she's just a mask and a spandex suit. There was nothing for Chat Noir to love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Push

In Marinette’s eyes their dynamic was flawless. They always knew where the other would step, how the other would attack. If Ladybug ever stepped out of line she could count on 

Chat Noir to set her straight. They would save Paris while exchanging witty banter, fist bump, then continue their day separately as they should. Ladybug and Chat Noir were in sync, connected in a way unique to their partnership.

Marinette misses that.

She wishes it were nobody’s fault, that they simply drifted apart, but she can’t lie to herself like that. She knows exactly what she did.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It started a month ago. Chat Noir made another futile attempt at confessing his feelings to his cynical yet oblivious partner.

“Ladybug, I need to tell you something.”

She ignored his urgency in favor of her own, as always. Miraculi beeped, signaling imminent detransformation. Marinette couldn’t risk that.  
“Another time, Chat,” she replied with a smile, latching her yoyo onto the nearest fixture.

Chat grabbed Ladybug’s arm, desperately preventing her escape. “Ladybug, please! You run away every time I try to talk to you.”

Running was still an option. Marinette didn’t have to face her feline friend and say “okay, but you only have two minutes.” She didn’t have to listen to the words “I love you, Ladybug.”

She didn’t have to snap when the fragile thread separating their personal lives from professional matters severed.

“You can’t do this, Chat!” She yelled, removing her arm from his grasp. Her expression soured, blue eyes wild behind a stifling mask.  
Marinette didn’t realize that she was screaming. This whole event was a blur of fear and desperation. Ladybug could never be more than fiction; she wasn’t real. Marinette was real, with real friends and real feelings and a real life. Ladybug could never have any of that no matter how hard Chat Noir wished for it.

“Ladybug is nothing more than a red mask and a spandex suit! She can’t have friend or relationships or any semblance of a personal life. You can’t love her because she isn’t real!”

There was a layer of sadness in Chat’s features, in his drooped ears and dull eyes. But his squared shoulders proved determined.

He reached out carefully, as if she was the stray cat instead of him. Leather fingers caressed bare cheeks, causing Ladybug to shiver. “You feel pretty real to me.”

Marinette wanted to soften but Chat’s tenderness only hardened her resolve. She allowed herself to relish in his touch for a moment more before relinquishing it forever.

“I have a best friend and a crush at school and two amazing parents to return home to. Those parts of my life are real. Nothing about this, “ she gestured to her entire self, then Chat, then herself again, “exists in that life. Ladybug is just a character I play.” With a final breath she dealt the deathblow. “You don't’ know who I am and I hope you never will.”

The words hit Chat like a real blow, knocking the air out of him and draining his pale face of what little color it had.

She didn’t stay but she heard his curses from several roofs away.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now everything feels wrong. Marinette can’t predict Chat Noir’s moves. Chat can’t foresee Ladybug’s. They forego their usual post-akuma fistbump. Everything is dim and blurred at the edges.

Marinette hadn’t realized she was pushing away her best friend.

Chat doesn’t know as much about Marinette’s personal life as Alya does, but he knows her in a way that nobody else ever will again.


End file.
